Democrats not the only ones in trouble

The Republicans were pretty smug when Scott Brown, a Republican tea partier, won the Massachusetts Senate seat occupied for centuries by Ted Kennedy. It certainly got the Democrat's attention.

But now it appears that Democratic incumbents aren't the only ones in trouble. Senator Bob Bennett, R-Utah, running for his fourth term didn't even win the primary. The big reason, he voted for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, affectionately known as TARP.

Many voters see TARP as a Welfare program for wealthy investment bankers. Hmmm, aren't they the ones who got us into this mess in the first place??

Now I can see why voters are upset, it seems like the government just gave away money to the banks and AIG and let them do whatever they wanted with it, including giving bonuses to the executives that got us into this mess.

But we have to look at the whole picture. Our economy was about to go belly up, something drastic and quick needed to be done. Leaving money decisions up to Congress moves about as slow as a glacier. Also, the companies like AIG who gave out executive bonuses got into a lot of trouble for it. Several of the banks have already paid back the TARP money because they didn't want the Feds looking over their shoulders. Also, AIG is doing better, so hopefully they will soon be repaying their debts.

Also, a lot of people are worried about the deficit spiraling out of control. I agree that we cannot continue to let the deficit grow, but we needed to go into the hole for a little while to bolster the economy. Employment is starting to come back, albeit slowly, so lowering the deficit right away could be counter productive.

Many people are dissatisfied with Congress right now, the deadlock is extremely frustrating. The problem is that right now the country is so polarized, it's hard for Congress to pass any legislation without making a lot of people mad. Personally, I think that any legislation that makes both the conservatives and the liberals mad is probably good because it's in the middle. Many people think that the middle is a bad place to be, but if you look at nature you can see that the animals and habitats that are in the middle and not in the extremes, generally have the best chance at survival.